Summary: This program portrays the Crusades as a response to the rapid rise of Islam. It looks at various orders of Christian monks and their role in the preservation of religious, artistic, and cultural aspects of civilization. The Inquisition-the Church's response to the rise of heresy and the practice of witchcraft and magic in the Middle Ages-illustrates the ultimate in religious intolerance which...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: In animism, good and bad spirits exercise an influence on humans. The shaman communes with the spirits in order to heal his tribal constituency. These and other less traditional beliefs, practices, and rituals are the topics of this program. Millenarianism is discussed as a nostalgic belief in a 1,000-year reign of the saints either before, or immediately after, the return of Christ. Astrology...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: The identities of the founders of three major religions-Confucianism, Christianity, and Islam-are studied in this program. The story of Confucianism and how its tenets spread to the Chinese social and political structure includes discussions about the yin (feminine principle) and the yang (masculine principle) The significance of Jesus as a prophet for Muslims, and God incarnate for Christians,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: The French Revolution explodes, and the Church, at the center of the controversy, must redefine its relationship with political power. This program focuses on religious controversy throughout the ages to the 19th century, when Christianity finds a new vitality and diversity of worship in democratic societies. Vatican II (1962-1965) is discussed as having paved the way for modern Catholicism,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program traces the history of the Protestant Reformation, the path of its founder, Martin Luther, and the subsequent rise of sects including Calvinism, Anglicanism, Presbyterianism, and Methodism. Topics discussed include the Council of Trent, the renewal of Catholicism in the 16th and 17th centuries, and the rise of religious orders founded by St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Avila,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Neanderthals begin burying their dead in sepulchers that simulate their huts in an attempt to connect with the spiritual world. When God first speaks to Abraham, he becomes the father of three great religions: Judaism, and subsequently Christianity and Islam. Moses leads the children of Israel out of slavery and into the Promised Land. Buddha, "The Awakened One," teaches humans to transcend...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Roman, Gothic, Baroque, and Rococo religious art, along with Christian iconography, are examined as reflections of the religious and political attitudes of the periods in which they were created. This program also examines the role of the Christian Orthodox Church and the schism of 1054 that permanently divided its members. The degrees of reverence accorded to Mary as Christ's mother by...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program examines the structure and major tenets of these four eastern religious philosophies. The role of the spiritual master in Hinduism is defined, and the belief in transcendental power and a multitude of deities is explained. The history of Buddhism is traced from the 6th century BC. Reincarnation and nonviolence are discussed as major beliefs. Chinese Taoism, especially its stress on...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Christmas, Easter, Passover, Yom Kippur, Bar or Bas Mitzvah, and other significant feasts and rituals of the Christian and Jewish faiths are discussed in this program. Jesus is shown as the role model for Christian behavior as exhibited by the early martyrs and saints. Protestantism's rejection of saints as religious icons is examined. The spiritual characters of specific modern "saints,"...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Using the book the Acts of the Apostles, this program traces the birth of Christianity to the development of the first Christian communities. Christian persecutions and the role of the catacombs as places of hiding and worship are discussed, along with the activities of the founders of the first synods, theologians Gregory of Nyssa, John Chrysostom, and Saint Augustine. An examination of the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006